


Checkmate

by DramaticSheep



Category: Madam Secretary
Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27372580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DramaticSheep/pseuds/DramaticSheep
Summary: A short 4 part story about Henry and Alison's love of playing chess, set around season one with emphasis on 'So it Goes' and 'Tamerlane'
Relationships: Elizabeth McCord/Henry McCord
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter One: Learning The Ropes

**A/N - The idea for this story popped into my head when I totally forgot and then remembered that Henry and Alison often play chess together, and I just had to write about it. This story fits in with the episodes 'So It Goes' and 'Tamerlane' from season 1. It's likely to be around four chapters long. I hope you enjoy it! Please leave a review if you'd like to. I hope I don't bore you too much with the chess basics - I just thought it would be sweet for us to see Henry teaching a young Alison how to play, considering we see them play together several times on the show when she is older.**

**I had some lengthy discussions with other Madam Secretary fans and Elizabeth and what her chess playing would be like. Initially I thought it'd be hilarious if Elizabeth was terrible at the game - instead I settled on the fact that she's a pro - however in the future (Think season 5 in the airport episode) she is very rusty because she hasn't played in many years.**

* * *

**Chapter One**

**Learning The Ropes**

The fire crackled quietly in the background as the McCord family lazed around in the cozy living room of their farm house. It was Henry's favourite day of the week, Sunday. To his delight it was a cold and rainy afternoon, denying the children of the opportunity to play outside and therefore forcing them into actually spending time with him and Elizabeth.

He gazed down at the chessboard in front of him, a beautiful brown and white checkered board with ornate pieces coloured white and mahogany. It was a thing that Henry had treasured since Elizabeth had bought it for him on his birthday many years ago. He always took pride in owning this beautiful set, never missing the opportunity to polish it and wipe away any specs of dust. He'd grown up playing chess and _thought_ that he'd been pretty good at it, that is until he met Elizabeth Adams.

He couldn't keep a track anymore of exactly how many times she'd wiped the floor with him on the chess board. The first few times it blew him away - her extensive knowledge of the tactics, the best moves to play offensively and defensively, the way she hardly _ever_ blundered material and the way she barely ever let him get to her side of the board. Eventually it became a little annoying - they hadn't played a game together for many years now, but he still always strived to improve in the hope that one day he would finally beat her on the board.

An old battered copy of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual lay open on his lap as he arranged the pieces on the board to signify one of the diagrams at the top of the page he was reading on how to checkmate with two knights. When all of the pieces were in place, he closed the book and attempted to solve the puzzle by himself, this was after all one of the best ways to learn. Pausing before making the first move he looked over to the rest of his family sitting on the sofa, six year old Jason cuddled up in Elizabeth's arms, the two of them watching Wall-E on the family TV. Stevie as her usual self was glued to her phone and Alison - who _had_ been watching the movie with her mother was now walking over to his arm chair.

She stopped when she was opposite him and at the other end of the board and reached out to touch one of the white knights.

"Daddy, what are you doing?" She asked, eyeing all of the different pieces curiously.

"Hey Noodle." He smiled. "Just studying some chess theory. Would you like to see?" He asked.

She nodded and walked over and jumped up onto his lap, waiting for the lesson to begin. With one hand wrapped around little Alison's waist he began to move all of the pieces back to their normal starting positions on the board.

"Let's just get this board back to normal, one sec." he said, moving all the pawns back to their ranks.

"Why are there so many pieces?" Alison asked, picking up one of the white pawns and looking at it.

"Well, here, look." Henry said, taking the white pawn from her. "This right here is called a pawn, they are the lowest valued piece, we have more than one of these - you want to count them?"

Alison took the pawn back from her father and placed it back into its empty square on the board and counted each one aloud.

"That's right, we have eight pawns." Henry said. "Now a pawn can normally only move one square forward, but on its first move, it can move two squares forward." He explained. "Why don't you choose one and make your first move?"

"Okay." Alison said, picking up the queenside pawn and moving it forward two squares and setting it down.

"Pawn to D4, good move - that's actually a very common opening." Henry said. He reached over and picked up the kingside pawn on the opposite side of the board and moved it forward two squares so that it was diagonally opposite Alison's white pawn.

"So Noodle, the aim of the game is to get the other players king into checkmate - to put them into the position where their king cannot avoid being captured, you manage that, you win the game." Henry explained. "Now, let's discuss captures, you with me so far?" He asked.

Alison nodded, eyes wide taking in all of the information.

"Good girl." Henry said. "Now, pawns can only move one square forward after the first move, however they can capture other pieces on the diagonal." He explained, pointing at her pawn and then his, indicating how they were diagonally opposite each other. "I just took my turn, I moved my pawn to E5, so what would your next move be?" He asked.

She took a few minutes to look at the board, Henry smiled as he could see the cogs in her mind turning, deciding which move to make next.

"So I could just -" She started to say, picking up her pawn, moving it diagonally up and removing Henry's pawn, and then looking at him for validation.

"Excellent!" He smiled. "You made your first capture! Well done!"

Alison smiled brightly and placed her father's pawn down on the side of the table next to the board.

"So now let's take a look at how the other pieces move and capture." Henry said, picking up his queenside knight. "Do you know what this piece is?" He asked her.

"A horse?" Alison asked. Henry chuckled.

"Well yes, it sure does look like a horse. But no, this is actually called a knight. These guys move kind of strangely. For one, they can jump over other pieces. They can move two squares forward and one square left or right, or two squares left or right and one square up or down."

He placed the knight down on the board to demonstrate.

"So you see how the knight here jumped over these two other pieces?" He asked, pointing at them.

"So it moves in, like, an L shape?" Alison asked.

"Exactly." Henry nodded. "Why don't you try moving one of your knights?" He motioned towards her pieces.

Alison picked up her own queenside knight and moved it to C3 - basically mirroring Henry's move.

"Brilliant." Henry said. "Okay the next piece we call a bishop." He said, pointing at the four bishops on either side of the board. "Notice how one is on a light square and one is on a dark square?"

Alison nodded again.

"That's important see, bishops can only move diagonally." He explained, picking up his kingside bishop and moving it diagonally up the board so that it was on the furthest left dark square opposite one of Alison's pawns.

"Okay, I see." Alison said, pointing at the board at where the bishop had started and now where it had ended up.

"Now let's stop here and think for a second." Henry said. "How do pawns capture pieces again?" He prompted.

"Diagonally, you said - ohhhh." She said, realising that he had moved his bishop into the perfect square for her to be able to capture it with her pawn. With a look of delight on her face, she moved the pawn up and removed his bishop on the board.

"Very good." He said. "I think you're a natural. You may even take after your mother. Between you and I - your mom is amazing at this game, but don't tell her I said that."

"You know, I'm only over here." Elizabeth piped up from the sofa. "I can hear everything you're saying."

Henry chuckled as he picked up another piece to show Alison.

"You just enjoy your movie, babe." He said. "And I will continue to teach Noodle here, how to become a grandmaster one day."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and laughed, turning her head back towards the TV to continue watching with Jason.

"So, this piece here is the queen." Henry explained, he passed it to Alison to let her examine it closely. "This is the most powerful piece on the board, it can move anywhere it wants - horizontally, diagonally, vertically - you name it, the queen can do it." He explained demonstrating to her all the squares to where the queen could move. He then placed the queen back into its starting position and then proceeded to remove Alison's pawn that had captured his bishop earlier.

"Now just for an example for this next piece." He said as he placed Alison's pawn on the side of the table. "What do you think this piece is called?"

She looked at the piece in the bottom left square, it was tall and round, it basically looked like a tower, she shrugged slightly, unsure.

"A tower?" She asked.

"Almost." Henry said. "This is actually called the rook. Though in French they call it a Tour - which in English means Tower, so you weren't far off." Henry said.

He picked up the rook and moved it all the way up the board in a straight line until it was opposite one of his pawns.

"The rook can move any number of squares vertically." He said, he then moved it all the way over to the right side of the board "And any number of squares horizontally. Again, this is a really powerful piece - it's the most important piece after your queen."

He now picked up the only piece they hadn't discussed yet and placed it right in the center of the board for her to see.

"This is your king." He said, pointing at it. "You have to keep this piece safe throughout the game, it can move and it can capture. The king can move one square in any direction." He explained and watched as she picked it up and moved it to all of the squares available for it to move to.

"I think that's enough for today." Henry said. "I don't want to overwhelm you with information. If you like it, I'll teach you some more moves and theory another day."

"Yes please, daddy." Alison said, getting up off of his lap. "That was fun."

She returned to the sofa to sit next to Elizabeth and Jason to watch the remainder of the movie. Henry returned all the chess pieces back to their starting positions and once again opened his book.

 _Back to the grind_ he thought.


	2. Chapter Two: Queen's Gambit

**A/N - Thanks for the reviews so far! Hope you're enjoying reading and it's not too hard to follow. This chapter expands upon the scene where Henry and Alison are playing chess in the episode 'So It Goes' from season one. For anyone who needs some little reminders as to what happened - Elizabeth, Henry and Isabelle are investigating the plane crash and manage to find the guy who sabotaged the plane and get a confession out of him - it seems as though the President was responsible so Henry and Elizabeth are paranoid and wondering how to go about the whole situation.**

**So while doing some research for this story, I found out something really cool - I googled the meaning of "Tamerlane"and apparently it is a medieval variant of chess that included a way bigger board and more pieces, even completely different pieces such as giraffes! I've always thought that the chess metaphors and symbolisms in this show were awesome, but for some reason this new discovery just blew me away.**

**FYI the Queen's Gambit is a popular opening in a chess game played by white to try and gain control over the center of the board. Opponents can choose to either accept or decline the Queen's Gambit, as you'll see in this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**Queen's Gambit**

Things had been so strained lately due to their little covert investigation into Vincent Marsh's death, The whole thing seemed like a giant puzzle to which they already knew the conclusion, but didn't yet know how certain factors played their parts up to that ending. Henry knew that what they were doing was not condoned, late night meetings with Isabelle, so many secrets from everybody they knew - yet he couldn't shift the feeling that Elizabeth was definitely onto something.

Her words the previous night played on a loop in his head.

" _Maybe we shouldn't be doing this, whoever's behind it had no problem killing the Secretary of State, we have to consider the kids. Maybe it's too dangerous to go poking around."_

He had to admit, she had a good point - the entire thing reeked of foul play and he was determined to help her get to the bottom of it for her sake and the kids and was just thankful that his marine background was able to help Elizabeth and Isabelle out in their investigation as to how the plane crash happened.

"Hello? Earth to dad." A nearby voice pulled him out of his thought train and he looked up to see Alison standing by his seat at the living room table, the wooden chess set under her left arm.

"Huh? Sorry Noodle, Hey." Henry said, pulling his glasses off and rubbing his temples in a circular motion.

All five of the McCords were once again resting in the living room of their Georgetown home, and although they were now seven years older, Henry couldn't help but be reminded of the day when he taught his little girl how to play chess. Many things were different now, but Stevie was still, as usual glued to her phone - and Elizabeth and Jason had traded the Disney movies for Halo and a trashy magazine.

"Can we play?" Alison asked hopefully.

"Sure." Henry said and watched her as she opened the folding wooden chess set and removed all the pieces and laid it flat out on the table. She placed all of the pieces into their starting positions and looked at her father.

"Which pieces do you want?" She asked.

"Hm, I don't know. How mean are you planning to be during this game?" He joked. Alison laughed and flipped the board around so that the white pieces were now in front of Henry.

"Oh, now you're just pitying me." Henry moaned, laughing as he put his glasses back on and made his first move. Alison mirrored his move with her own pawn, to which Henry responded with another pawn push on the left.

Alison chuckled to herself as she pushed another of her pawns up.

"Oh I'm not falling for that." She said. "Queen's gambit declined."

"Of course, I trained you too well to fall for such basic tactics." Henry said, chuckling as he developed his knight into the game. He was struggling to see which moves would be best for him as thoughts about the investigation swirled around his head.

"Wow, rookie mistake." Alison chimed as she moved her bishop out, threatening his knight.

"Crap." Henry said, looking down at the game, astounded that she'd pinned his knight and he was unable to move it to safety, she was right, it _was_ a rookie mistake.

"Geez, focus dad!" She said, capturing his knight and putting his king into check.

"Sorry, sorry." Henry said, resting his head in his left hand while he thought about his next move carefully.

"Apparently -" Elizabeth chimed in from her spot on the sofa. "Every pair of my shoes is out of fashion." She absentmindedly flipped onto the next page of her magazine and continued to read.

"You really need a magazine to tell you that, mom?" Alison joked as Henry eliminated the check that Alison had forced him into.

"Guess I'll just embarrass you at your soccer game." Elizabeth said.

"She's already embarrassing me at this game." Henry added as he watched Alison capture one of his pawns.

"Come on dad, stop going easy on me!" Alison jeered.

"I'm not!" Henry said, moving up his bishop and accidentally blundering it.

Alison looked down at the board and then at her father, confusion plastered all over her face from the absolutely idiotic move her father just played, she was about to ask him if he was feeling okay when Stevie screamed loudly from the kitchen. Everyone was startled but Alison saw both of her parents noticeably jump up at the sound.

"Stevie!" Elizabeth shouted, frustrated. "What? What?" She asked, barely sitting on the edge of the sofa.

"I have a date with the cutest guy on Earth!" Stevie said, smiling widely as she walked back into the living room. Elizabeth and Henry visibly exhaled, relief washing over them. Alison looked from Henry, over to Elizabeth and then back at Henry.

"Are you guys okay?" She asked.

* * *

Henry and Elizabeth sat cross legged on their bedroom floor, a laptop in between them listening again to the audio from the plane's black box, which Henry thought they must have listened to for almost a thousand times by now, but he'd received a text from Elizabeth on her way home saying that she had come across some new information so he decided not to protest.

"The stabiliser has failed completely, I cannot keep us in the air. Trying to push -" The pilot's panicked voice stated on the recording.

"So it goes." Vincent Marsh's calm and collected voice said, plain as day.

"So when his plane was going down Vincent Marsh was thinking that Jackson and Dalton were behind it. This doesn't mean he was right." Henry said, trying to reassure his wife.

"Ambassador Dori didn't deny that the CIA was involved in the Dubai crash." Elizabeth said. "If they were, then Dalton knew how to sabotage a C-600 and get away with it. Maybe he tapped me because he didn't think I'd ever suspect him." She thought aloud.

"Your loyalty is your soft spot?" Henry asked.

"Maybe I'm the Secretary of State because he wanted to keep me close - which would explain Russel making overtures to Matt about spying on me." Elizabeth suggested. Henry didn't reply - he was at a loss for words.

"I'm calling the President of the United States a murderer." Elizabeth stated, a look of fear flew across her face. "Now is _really_ the time for you to start talking me off the ledge." She looked at him hopefully - expecting yet another of his helpful quotes, a reassurance that she was being paranoid, something - anything.

"I'm sorry babe." Henry said, shaking his head. "I got nothing."

Elizabeth sighed, starting to twirl her wedding ring around on her finger, she looked directly into Henry's eyes.

"What's my next move?" She asked, feeling overwhelmed.

"For as long as I've known you, you've always been five steps ahead of everybody." Henry began.

"You navigate the playing field like a pro, just keep your head down and an eye out for an opportunity to get any more proof or information - it'd only improve your position - you need to make sure that all avenues are covered before you go in for the kill. You got this, babe." He said, he smiled at her and swept away a strand of hair that had fallen across her face as she'd tilted her head at him.

"Thanks." Elizabeth said. "So, speaking of moves - just how badly did Noodle obliterate you in that chess game you two played?" She asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." Henry said sarcastically, Elizabeth burst out with laughter. "Seriously though, we should have enrolled her in tournaments or something, she's seriously good." Henry admitted.

"I guess she takes after me." Elizabeth said, feeling ever so slightly smug.

"I'd say that's a fair assumption. You know one day, I will beat you at that game." Henry joked.

"You wish, Mr. McCord." She laughed and kissed him.


	3. Chapter Three: Sacrifice

**A/N - This chapter is based on Tamerlane from season one, I doubt I really need to recap what happened in that episode but I will anyway just in case. It turned out that Dalton and Jackson were not behind the plane crash that killed Vincent Marsh - it was actually Juliet and Munsey who were helping to stage a coup in Iran. Elizabeth decides to go to Iran with very little security to warn them about the coup and try to prevent it from happening. Once again this chapter will borrow a lot of dialogue from Tamerlane.**

**FYI a sacrifice in chess terms is a move giving up a piece with the objective of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value.**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

**Sacrifice**

**Four months later**

" _You're out of moves, Bess."_

The words had been niggling at the back of her mind since he'd said them to her. It had bothered her that he'd had the audacity to call her Bess, as though he was still her friend, like they were still close. However she couldn't deny that he was right, she was certainly out of good tactical moves - even if they informed the Iranian president of the imminent coup that was being plotted they would just assume that the United States was behind it all along. No, she needed to think outside of the box - dealing with this from the comfort of her own country wasn't going to cut it this time.

All of these thoughts repeatedly circled in her head on the drive home from the White House, as well as an imminent feeling of fear slowly building deep inside her. She knew Henry wasn't going to react well to the idea, and she was going to have to talk him round. When her motorcade arrived at her Georgetown home, she reluctantly stepped out of the vehicle, bidding goodbye to her detail and that she would see them tomorrow morning. Slowly but surely she entered the house - which by now was in complete darkness thanks to the late hour and made her way up to their bedroom. She was surprised to see Henry was still awake, lying on the bed as though he had been waiting up for her to come home.

"Ah, good. I'm glad I don't have to wake you up." She said walking over to the chair in the far corner of the room, opposite the bed where he was lying.

"I don't like the sound of that." Henry said, his brow furrowed as a look of deep concern swept over him.

"I've been at the White House." Elizabeth said.

"Yeah, for quite a while." Henry remarked, indicating how late it was.

"I had to convince the president that the only way out of this little pickle in Iran is to go there." She explained, taking a seat on the armchair and staring him in the eye.

"Please tell me that you mean for _him_ to go there." Henry pleaded his eyes wide and filled with fear. It broke her heart to see it.

"Henry." She said softly, in an attempt to comfort him.

"No. I have always got your back, but going to Iran when there's a coup in the works? No, I'm playing the husband card." He argued, getting up from the bed and waking over to her.

"Babe, listen to me, if this coup moves forward and takes out the current government, Iran will become a failed state, you know -" She tried to explain herself

"Stop. I know you're gonna say this is what you signed up for, that there are millions of lives at stake but I - " He pleaded, his voice wasn't completely filled with anger, but it seemed to her like he was getting there.

"what part of this do you disagree with?" She asked, surprised at just how argumentative he was being.

"Okay." He said, taking a seat opposite her on the end of their bed. "There are God knows how many radicals who would love to kill you." He suggested.

Elizabeth paused and looked down at the floor, dreading his reaction to what she was about to tell him.

"That's why it's a secret mission. They won't even know I'm there." She paused when Henry visibly recoiled at this new information, clearly unhappy. "Okay, look - the whole point of me going is precisely because of the risk. How else are we going to send the message that we really have nothing to do with this coup?"

Henry shook his head and stood up from his perch on the end of the bed so that he towered over her.

"So now you admit... it's risky?." He stated

"And sanctioned by the president. You can take it up with him, if you want to." She replied.

"Maybe I will." Henry said coldly, overwhelmed that he seemed to have next to no choices in the matter, he knew that her mind was made up and whether he protested or not, she was going to go.

"Henry, come on." She said, the faintest of smiles spreading across her face as she looked up at her husband, she stood up and moved in close to him. "I'm gonna be okay, I love you." She said as she softly kissed him on the lips. She pulled him close and engulfed him in a hug, stroking the back of his head tenderly. "I will be fine. But just in case I'm not…"

"Are you really gonna go there?" Henry said, as she retreated from the embrace and walked over to her side of the bed.

"I think that you should wait a year." She stated, as she took a seat upon the bed.

"And there you go." Henry scoffed, throwing his arms up in the air as he walked over to his own side of the bed.

"To remarry." Elizabeth finished.

"Yes, I got that. I'm not having this conversation." He said stubbornly, sitting down.

"You'll be a hot commodity." Elizabeth joked as she watched her husband sit beside her on the bed. I'm just saying that for the sake of the kids, I think a year is a respectful amount of time to wait."

"Fine. A year. Are we done?" Henry snapped, clearly uncomfortable with this topic of conversation.

"Then there's the question of to whom." She suggested.

"Seriously? You have a list?" He asked.

"More like parameters, I think we're talking north of 40 here, with 35 as the floor for somebody

really spectacular." She said, turning around to face him. Henry laughed and removed his glasses from the bridge of his nose as he looked down at the patterned bedspread.

"Okay, I'm not Hugh Hefner 40 is just fine." He joked.

"Good, and while I don't have a list of approved women…" She continued.

"Oh, my God. You have rejects?" He asked, amazed.

"I do. Renee Brown."

"Oh, no. What is wrong with Renee Br…" He stopped immediately when she shot him the most evil look she had ever given him. "Okay, okay, you're saving the world. No Renee Brown. Is there anyone else off-limits?"

"Maria DeLuca, Denise Chang, Vera Petrovic, Erin Blackshaw, Odette Norwood...Do I need to make my case there?" She listed.

"I won't even accept their lasagnas." He joked.

"Good." She said, turning around and beginning to take her shoes off. "Make sure the kids don't like new Mrs. McCord more than they like me." She said, throwing her shoes to the ground.

Well, I'm marrying her, and I already don't like her, so...Is that it?" He said.

Elizabeth smiled slightly at the notion that even if she died, Henry wouldn't like anybody else other than her.

"Well...what else do you think we need to cover?" She asked coyly, biting her bottom lip and shooting him a small glance. Henry smiled and leaned over, grabbing her by the shoulder he pushed her down onto the bed and positioned himself on top of her, she slowly and gently began stroking his arm.

"If this is our last night together…" He began, but paused to kiss her. Elizabeth smiled widely and returned his kiss

"Computer passwords?" She suggested, smiling even wider. Henry leaned in to kiss her once more, gripping her right hand with his left and smiling.

"Wow. That is so hot." He murmured

* * *

The following night he sat in the den with Alison, Stevie and Jason. He had once again been challenged to a chess game, but as he sat opposite his daughter overlooking his pieces, his mind was very much elsewhere. His thoughts swung back to the previous night - the raw passion that had been ignited by the fact that this may just have been his and Elizabeth's last night together. He smiled remembering the way she'd made him feel, the way he'd really focussed on making her feel amazing, the way she had responded to his touch with her soft moans of pleasure and calling out his name.

His smile fell when his mind circled around to the events from this morning, the way he stood and watched as she hugged and kissed all three of her children as though this may be the last time she would ever see them - and they were all none the wiser. He had told her that she didn't have to go, though it wasn't a statement, it was a last ditch effort of pleading. She kissed him fiercely and seemed to push herself out the front door.

"See you in a few days." She said, as he watched her go.

For several moments he'd just stood there watching as she bundled herself into the back of the motorcade which rolled away slowly and then disappeared from his field of vision.

* * *

"Don't go easy on me, dad." Alison complained as she took Henry's queen with her bishop, placing it down on the side of the sighed, realising his mistake - it had been a downright bad move, his queen was sacrificed for simply no good reason, he had gained no advantage - it was a mess.

"If I ever did, and I'm not admitting to anything, that ends now you're sixteen." Henry said pushing one of his queenside pawns up toward the fight. Alison moved her knight to attack Henry's pawn and looked up at her father.

"Woah, coup." Jason mumbled from the window seat, his laptop laid open on his legs.

"What's cool, Jay?" Stevie asked from the sofa.

"No, no not _cool_." He said, sitting up and turning the laptop so the others could see the screen. "Coup, like a military coup." He said.

"Where?" Stevie asked, putting her book down beside her on the sofa and looking at the laptop screen.

"Iran." He said. "It looks like a civil war there."

Henry's head shot up as Jason mentioned Iran and looked at the images being played on the news site that Jason had up on the laptop.

"Oh God, just what the Middle East needs, more instability, right dad?" Stevie asked, looking over at her father. Henry looked away; his thoughts already beginning to spiral.

"History of the world." He whispered.

"Sounds like more work for mom." Alison said, sighing. "Your move, dad." She reminded him, and he looked down at the board just as his cell phone began to ring across the room. He lifted his head, removed his glasses and stood up to go and answer it.

"Oh, give me one second." He told Alison, walking over to the side table and picking up the phone in his right hand and placing it to his ear.

"Hello?" He asked

"Dr. McCord, it's Nadine Tolliver." Elizabeth's chief of staff's voice filled his head, so calm and collected, and it took every bit of self control he had not to fall to the floor as she delivered the news about the coup to him.


	4. Chapter 4: Endgame

**A/N - This chapter will also borrow some dialogue from the episode Tamerlane.**

**This is the final chapter so I hope you've enjoyed this story. Thanks for reading.**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

**Endgame**

The world was ending, or so she thought. The room around her blurred into slow motion - her sense of hearing temporarily muted by the sheer volume of the blast which had thrown her forward face first onto the floor, a sharp pain ripped across her lower back as one of her security details threw his body across hers to shield her from the incoming gunfire. She was pinned to the floor, terrified and overwhelmed as she watched Javani attempt to crawl over to his son who was hiding behind one of the large armchairs, his hands over his ears, mouth wide open. If she had been able to hear properly she knew that he was probably screaming.

She watched as Javani took a bullet to the back and collapsed like a rag doll to the ground, instantly dying. She struggled to get up from the floor but Fred was pinning her so effectively that she was unable to move. Her heart broke for Abdol as she watched him cry and reach out to try and touch his father, unable to accept what had happened to him.

"Abdol, stay down!" She shouted over to him, hoping that his hearing wasn't as compromised as hers and that he was able to hear her. She struggled yet again beneath Fred's body weight and shifted her head to look at him. She struggled to keep a lid on her emotions when she realised he too, was dead. She brushed the side of his head with her right hand and focused on her breathing, immense guilt washed over her as she realised that his final act had been to sacrifice his own life to save hers.

She looked down at the ground as she choked back a sob, wondering what the fate of her other security detail, John Kendall had been. Was he caught up in the attack? Had he also died to save her? He had been stationed outside of Javani's house so he had been in a more open position, more vulnerable to attack and the fact that he hadn't come running in as soon as he heard the blast was not a good sign. Elizabeth turned her head as a flash of bright light illuminated the far side of the room which was now engulfed in flames - somebody had thrown a molotov. The house was going to burn down and she was trapped beneath Fred, unable to escape.

 _Oh God, I'm going to die_ , she thought. _Abdol is going to die._

She couldn't stop the tears from falling as black smoke began to fill the room, the heat was unbearable as she watched Abdol still crouched behind the armchair, screaming and crying for his father. She wanted nothing more than to run over to him and comfort him, to take him to safety but she couldn't move. Resigned to her fate, she closed her eyes and once again tried to focus on her breathing, which had become much more difficult now that she was inhaling endless amounts of smoke.

 _Henry, I'm sorry. I love you,_ was the last thought in her mind as she fell unconscious.

* * *

Henry marched into the kitchen, his mind on fire with worry as he walked past Stevie and Alison washing the dishes in the sink. He'd just gotten home from the White House after unsuccessfully grilling Russell and Conrad for information which they didn't have. He knew he'd come across as being aggressive but in all honesty, he was past caring about that. The idea of putting Elizabeth in harm's way even for the greater good to him had always seemed like a terrible idea and the fact that she was now missing and possibly dead just proved his point even further.

"Hi." He muttered solemnly as he threw his keys down on the kitchen counter. Alison put down the dish she was drying and turned to face her father, the look of worry on his face must have been hard to miss.

"You heard something about mom, didn't you?" Alison asked, laying one hand down on the counter.

Stevie turned off the faucet and turned to face Henry now too, laying both hands back on the counter and staring at her younger sister.

"She's sixteen now dad, you should tell her that mom is in Iran where the coup is happening" Stevie said.

Henry stared at Stevie and then at Alison and sighed.

"How did you know?" He asked.

"I'm not stupid, neither is Ali." Stevie said, glancing over at her sister.

"But she couldn't have known there'd be a coup.." Alison said. It was a statement but Henry knew that really, it was a question.

"She was hoping to prevent it." Henry whispered - looking once again from Stevie and then to Ali.

"Is she okay?" Alison asked.

"I don't know." Henry said plainly, shaking his head - he knew it was selfish of him but he was genuinely glad that he had people at home that he could finally talk to about it.

"Oh, my God." Alison exclaimed, eyes wide with horror.

"Wow." Steve whispered.

At that very moment Jason wandered in from the den to catch the three of them mid revelation and all looking seriously concerned.

"You guys look serious." He noted.

Henry turned around to face his son unsure of just what to say to him until Alison abruptly grabbed one of the cans of Laffy String off of the kitchen counter and ripped the cap off of the top and started spraying her little brother with string.

"That is 'cause we're seriously planning a Laffy String attack on you, dummy!" She shouted as she began to chase Jason around the kitchen. Stevie and Henry followed suit, grabbing their own cans to join the fight. All three kids were screaming and laughing, at some points Henry couldn't help but to smile and laugh too, which made him feel a little conflicted. It was like he was betraying Elizabeth by having a good time with the kids, it made him feel uncomfortable. He ducked as a load of Laffy String headed his way and he attempted to push the thoughts out of his head. No, she would want him to protect the kids, make sure they weren't worrying and that they were having a good time, Elizabeth would want this.

* * *

Alison and Steve sat side by side on their parents' bed watching the news coverage on the Iran coup when Henry walked into the bedroom and planted himself down beside them. He pulled his girls into a hug, wrapping an arm around the both of them in an attempt to comfort.

"Well, at least Jason is sleeping peacefully." He said, turning to face the TV to watch the news coverage. Stevie smiled and looked at Alison and then her father.

"Kid's the poster child for blissfully unaware." She joked.

"Yeah." Henry said. "You're good sisters protecting him like that." Alison looked up at Henry.

"I don't remember if I told Mom I love her, when she called this morning." She admitted, then looked down at her hands.

"She knows you love her, Noodle. She knows we all do." Henry told her, she laid her head down to rest on his shoulder and all three of them returned to watching the coup news coverage, it was going to be a long night.

* * *

By now it was three in the morning and Henry, Alison and Stevie were still wide awake watching the coverage of the coup from bed. Alison was snuggled up to Henry beneath the covers and Stevie was lying on her front near the foot of the bed. Alison shivered and pulled the covers up even further, inhaling deeply as she did so.

"It smells like her." She said, explaining when Henry looked at her, a little confused. "The covers, it smells like her perfume."

"I hate how these news channels just play the same 5 minutes of footage over and over again." Stevie complained. "There's got to be more information by now." She scowled as the footage rolled across the TV of the same shots of gunfire that had been playing on a loop for the past six hours.

"Nobody knew she was there, Stevie." Henry commented. "They aren't going to report about her on the news."

"That is so incredibly reckless." Stevie said, sitting up on the bed.

"I know." Henry said. "I think she even knew it too, but you know your mother, once her mind is made up that's it - this is what she signed up for, to make the world a better place."

Suddenly Henry's cell phone rang loud and clear and vibrated on the bedside table, all three of them looked at it instantly and Henry simply couldn't have moved any faster to answer it. Alison and Stevie moved across the bed to sit either side of him, attempting to hear what was being said on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, okay. Thank you." Henry said and hung up the phone. "Mom's okay, she's coming home." he told them.

Alison and Stevie both let out a sigh of relief as they hugged Henry tightly, their emotions beginning to spill out. Stevie let go of Henry and moved towards Alison, pulling her sister into the biggest hug they had ever shared. Henry sat on the edge of the bed and smiled to himself. She was okay, she was coming home. Relief tore through him so fiercely that he thought he would explode. He had been working so hard to contain his emotions, to stay strong for the kids that it felt like a barrier had been lifted and he couldn't stop the tears that were now rolling down his face.

Alison and Stevie hugged their father again more tightly when they noticed he was crying, Alison leaned forward, kissing her father on the cheek and he reached up to hold both of their hands with his.

_She's okay, She's coming home._

* * *

She felt almost weightless as she sat in the backseat of the motorcade on her way back home from the airport, she kept having to remind herself to blink. She wasn't even sure how she was feeling, there was just a gaping hole of numbness at her core. After what had seemed like years, the motorcade had pulled up outside of the family home and she'd never been more relieved to see it. Just two days ago she believed she was never going to see her family ever again and the fact that she knew they were all there, living and breathing in that house ignited some sort of feeling within her, piercing the numbness that was threatening to consume her.

She walked slowly on her approach to the house, nodding to her security detail who were standing outside the front door in acknowledgment and pushed open the door and walked inside. It was instantaneous, the moment she had walked into the foyer, he was there. They walked to each other in tandem and enveloped each other in the tightest most loving hug. Finally Elizabeth could breathe again. She had made it home, she had survived, it wasn't a dream, it was real. Her sacrifice had paid off, and now she was home.

Stevie and Alison ran towards their mother and threw their arms around her, relief visible on their faces. Jason, who had been trailing behind got to Elizabeth last, he approached her from the right and she turned to face him as he pulled her into a hug, her baby boy.

She couldn't help but feel a wave of sorrow and guilt as she hugged him, knowing that Abdol would never be able to hug his father ever again. This only made her hug him tighter, she never wanted to let go, and the truth was that right now, in this very moment she didn't have to.


End file.
